My Weekend Crush

So, the first crush of the New Year is fraught with meaning. How you start the first of 52 future crushes sets a tone, you know. Like, you can’t just go crush anyone willy-nilly, right? So, in the face of such pressure, I won’t pick one single person. Instead, I have picked a concept. It’s the undeniably simple concept that movies with women do well at the box office. Consider the evidence. Vocative took the top 50 grossing films in theaters last year and looked at their box office. Turns out, those that passed the Bechdel Test (at least two named female characters who speak to each other about something other than a man) did significantly better than those that did not pass the test. The passing films grossed some $4.22 billion in domestic box office, while those that failed did $2.66 billion. Among the top-grossing test-passing hits “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” ($391 million), “Frozen” ($248 million) and “The Heat” ($160 million). Among the test-failing hits were “Star Trek Into Darkness” ($229 million) and “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” ($190 million). And then there were the test-failing duds like “The Lone Ranger” ($89.3 million) and “A Good Day To Die Hard” ($67.3 million).

Bottom line, shut the fuck up about women on screen not selling movie tickets. TV has already figured this shit out. In fact, it’s hard to think of a scripted show that consistently fails the Bechdel Test. It’s simply too unrealistic in the realm of weekly television to create a world where women don’t interact. Yet, for whatever reason, it’s still too often the norm on the big screen. “Pacific Rim” – fail. “Monsters University” – fail. “Anchorman 2” – fail. Do better, movies. I know you can. And for those movies that passed last year, good job, ladies. Now, if we could get some more female directors as well, we might actually be getting somewhere. Happy weekend, all.